1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is used for a video apparatus and/or device including a display device or the like, for example. In the video apparatus and/or device, input-image data is divided into blocks, each of the blocks is reduced in size so that basic blocks are generated, and the basic blocks are arranged into the original blocks so that each of noise particles is reduced in size. Subsequently, noises become more unnoticeable than ever.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, various types of video apparatuses and/or devices including the display device or the like are configured to remove noises from a video signal by using a two-dimensional low-pass filter, a time-recursive filter, etc. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-248026 discloses the idea of removing noises by using the time-recursive filter, for example.
However, in the case where the two-dimensional low-pass filter is used to remove noises even though the energy of the noise components is decreased, noise components with low space frequencies may be left. The noise components with the low space frequencies are displayed, as flat and large particles, so that the quality of a displayed screen image is deteriorated.
Further, in the case where the time-recursive filter is used to remove the noises, noise components making small movements are left and displayed, as small-moving noise particles, so that the quality of the displayed screen image is deteriorated.
Noise components removed with difficulty through noise-removal processing performed by using the above-described two-dimensional low-pass filter and time-recursive filter become noticeable when the number of pixels of a video signal generated under the Standard Definition Television (SDTV) system is increased and the format of the video signal is converted into that of a video signal generated under the High Definition Television (HDTV) system, for example.